A new Guardian investigation has revealed a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
A private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump, has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv.
Dezer is also a Trump donor, friend of Donald Trump Jr and member of the Miami branch of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
Former US officials and immigration lawyers said the flights – and Israel’s assistance in returning Palestinians to the occupied territory – marked a shift in policy driven by the Trump administration’s aggressive mass deportation campaign.
US officials did not answer questions about the cost of the two recent flights to Israel but, according to ICE, chartered flight costs have ranged between nearly $7,000 and more than $26,000 per flight hour in the past. Aviation industry sources estimated the flights to and from Israel would have cost ICE from $400,000 to $500,000.
Revealed: private jet owned by Trump friend used by ICE to deport Palestinians to West Bank
On the morning of 21 January, Israeli authorities left eight Palestinian men at a West Bank checkpoint. Disoriented and cold, they were dressed in prison-issued tracksuits and carried their few belongings in plastic bags.
Hours earlier, they had been sitting with their wrists and ankles shackled on the plush leather seats of a private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump.
Trump offers revised account of Tulsi Gabbard presence at FBI raid in Georgia
Donald Trump on Thursday offered a new and shifting account of why Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was present last week at an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia, saying she went at the urging of the attorney general, Pam Bondi.
Cuba open to talks with US ‘without pressure’ after months of Trump threats
After months of threats from Donald Trump, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has said that his government is “willing to engage in dialogue with the United States, a dialogue on any topic, but without pressure or preconditions”.
Trump’s border-czar takeover does little to calm Minneapolis tensions: ‘The agenda is still the same’
In Trump’s clearest attempt yet to “de‑escalate” tensions in Minneapolis, Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s “border czar”, announced on Wednesday that the administration will draw down 700 federal immigration officers as the statewide crackdown continues.
The Twin Cities remain on edge, waiting to see whether the fear will ease.
Be ‘prudent’ about supplying arms to Taiwan, Xi tells Trump in call
In their first call since November, the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, warned Donald Trump to be “prudent” about supplying arms to Taiwan, according to a readout of their call provided by China’s foreign ministry.
Trump administration issues rule that makes it easier to fire federal workers
The Trump administration is seeking to finalize its overhaul of the federal government’s civil service system through a rule issued this week by the office of personnel management (OPM) to strip job protections from 50,000 civil service employees.
What else happened today:
Steve Bannon, a one-time adviser to Donald Trump, has long styled himself as a populist nemesis of the global elites. Yet the latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files shows that he exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with the wealthy financier, discussing politics, travel and other topics.
The Oregon supreme court has ruled that a large number of criminal cases across the state must be dismissed due to a severe shortage of public defenders, a major decision that attorneys say will impact more than 1,400 pending cases.
Zohran Mamdani made city-operated grocery stores a key pledge of his campaign for mayor of New York City. So when one company seemed to muscle in on the idea this week, apparently as a PR stunt, Mamdani was quick to reply.
US job openings dropped to the lowest level in more than five years in December and data for the prior month was revised lower amid a softening in labor market conditions at the end of 2025.
An independent cinema in Oregon has claimed Amazon pulled screenings of their documentary about Melania Trump in protest at the cinema’s marketing strategy.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 4 February 2026.
